I'm a redeemed child of God and the momma to four vivacious daughters. I'm passionate about finding hidden blessings in the trials of life, living it out in an honest and open way, while encouraging those around me to believe in better.

You might remember Piper’s Willy Wonka themed birthday party last March? I may, or may not have submitted it and when I got no response, resubmitted it to Hostess with the Mostess {the best party blog ever!}. I’d finally shrugged it off when lookie!! It was featured yesterday!!

And this feature just may have put a little spark in my heart to get Hunter’s party {yes, from last April!} up on the blog!

So … while in Exuma recently, the girls thought it a grand idea to hijack mom’s computer while she was helplessly making dinner. I heard it all from the kitchen … mostly screaming and Wynter’s Broadway production of Winter Wonderland … but the real treat came when I opened photobooth and found exactly what they were up to!

They put together little skits, threw in some random singing, screaming, eyeballing {you’ll see}, swinging, itching, and a little fighting shoving. The highlights are Piper’s crazy intertwined throughout, and Wynter’s commitment to her song while dodging pushing Piper on the swing, amidst Piper’s crazy. I also did quite enjoy Wynter’s big finish!

Little Hunt makes a couple of appearances, but is mostly being bossed directed by her demanding older sisters.

Note: You may need to watch it twice for full effect. And I’m thinking 3D glasses would’ve been handy for those scary moments Piper almost takes out the computer with her feet.

I’ve talked about it before, but I’m going to say it again … it’s worth repeating … I’m forever thankful my girls are growing in their relationship with God.

Piper’s heart has been heavy since we’ve moved. Not all the time. But it’ll surface from time to time and we’ll pray, talk, and do our best to work through it. She came home from church a few weeks ago with a prayer request so dear to her heart. It moved me to tears. She made two copies and I keep one in my Bible so I can help her to pray over her need.

She’s also taken to writing on her hand a daily reminder that God has a plan for her life.

Last week something came up that troubled Piper and I asked her if she’d like to pray about it. I don’t know if words can adequately describe what I saw … her big, brown, sad eyes immediately flickered with joy and came to life as she said “yes,” she’d like to pray with me.

It fills me with absolute joy to know my girls believe in the power of prayer.

Taylor will often text me asking for prayer for one thing or another that’s on her heart.

As I’ve said many times … sometimes I feel like I’m failing in having “great big teaching moments” with them, only to realize it’s in these precious quiet times … requests for prayer or something as simple as playing Christian music through the house … that I’m reminded again and again … relationship deepens with everyday walk, everyday talk … an everyday way of life.

Taylor said to me recently that one thing she loves is that I play the music I do through the house.

And Piper told me recently that she likes to lay out a blanket on her bedroom floor and lay there to rest because she can hear the music coming into her room from the kitchen below her and it makes her happy.

Taylor also said something recently that stopped me in my tracks … the words buried deep into my heart. Taylor has been faced with some very difficult life struggles {putting it lightly}, yet because of a relationship with her Savior, yet because at her core she knows what grace and forgiveness look like … she said to me {regarding her circumstance}, “You know, in a way I’m kind of glad it happened … because it’s brought me closer to God.”

Her heart is pure. God has shown up and wrapped Himself around her … in ways I’ll never understand. It’s taken me 38ish years to get here and she sees Him at 16!?!

Because most people are looking at our situation through the world’s eyes … they don’t believe or understand how she could be looking at her situation through eternal eyes. I suppose, though, that’s not for me to try to understand.

And then I have my little 5 yo … we were in the middle of devotion recently and it was pressed upon my heart to ask Hunter if she’d like to invite Jesus to live inside of her. I explained what it meant and she said yes … she would like to invite Jesus to live inside of her. And as she repeated the words back to me, it was the sweetest, most precious prayer a mom could ever hear! Her sisters were there, ready with the high-fives, while sweet tears welled in my eyes.

Yes … ours is an eternal perspective. A perspective that makes me one happy mommy! But more importantly … our Father must be one happy Daddy!

One of the oddities in NC {well for us anyway, coming from “up nort”} is that swim team starts in the middle of May! And they take this hard core serious down here! The meet lasted nearly four hours! And we even left before it was finished as it was well past bedtime!

The girls displaying which heat and stroke they’ll be doing … are ya lovin’ Wynter’s face on this one?

The club has been sending desperate sounding emails asking for parent volunteers. We missed the prior weeks meets because the girls were in camps all day … so I was feeling a bit guilty we hadn’t been there and that I hadn’t volunteered. So sure, what the heck! tired-mama-fresh-from-the-horse-show raises her hand to volunteer. My job was to time the heats in lane four. But no worries, half way through I’d be relieved with a second set of volunteers.

Unbeknownst to me … half way meant TWO hours! I innocently asked another timer how long the meets typically last, and when she replied “four hours,” I was pretty sure I hadn’t heard her right. Or maybe she didn’t hear the question right.

I was wrong.

The meets starts in the blazing heat of day … and see, down here it actually gets hotter later in the day. So yeah. I’m a big ol’ ball of sweat, standing on already worn out feet, timing races. And … the girls weren’t even in my lane! I missed their first heat completely. But figured when relief came, I would see their second and third heats.

But yeah. That relief? It never came. Not for my lane anyway. How big of a tease is that? Everyone else is getting relieved and I’m standing there with feet that have fallen asleep. Literally. They do that when you have MS and it’s acting up. :(

Anyhoo … by the second half, I got a little bolder and asked my compadres to cover me while I watched the girls heats and snapped some photos.

This is Wynter diving in for the breaststroke … smooooth.

And this is Piper flailing diving in … um, not so smooooth. ;) I think my favorite part of the photo though, is Wynter {to the left of Piper} with arms crossed looking at her like she’s nuts.

And this is Wynter struggling with her butterfly … um, definitely not smooth. And be sure to watch the quick video too {I was able to get that a few weeks ago during a timed trial}.

And then maniac Piper. The first image is from her breaststroke {where she beat her fastest time, ahem}. And the second two were her butterfly … where she forgot goggles. And took a breather to wipe her eyes mid-lane.

Yep! Them’s my girls! Not concerned with technique or time or … well, goggles. They have fun, they’re in the water, they’re together, they get slushies … what else is there?